


Saving Chloe

by SymphonyWizard



Series: Miscellaneous stuff centered around Chloe and Oliver's son [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Smallville, Smallville Season 11 (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 05:52:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10530252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SymphonyWizard/pseuds/SymphonyWizard
Summary: The first time Chloe's son saved her life.  With a little bit of help from Daddy and his godfather.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [372259](https://archiveofourown.org/users/372259/gifts).



"Tommy, where are we at with that deal with Wayne Enterprises?" I ask as I wander aimlessly through my house.

"Working on it, Ollie," replies Tommy Merlyn.  "I can't seem to get ahold of Bruce Wayne and every time I try to call his house, his butler or Dick Grayson says he's out on an errand."

I think it's a good thing that we are talking through a phone.  My smile would have given away just how much I knew what that "errand" might be.  On the other side of the country, Superman and Batman are dealing with plant-based virus that Poison Ivy unleashed on Gotham.  I shudder just thinking about that woman.  Undeniably attractive, but with a deadly touch.  It took a nasty blow to the head with a fist and a foot to get me out of my pheromone-based haze.  Compliments of Mrs. Sullivan-Queen.

On and on, Tommy drones about the business deal with Wayne Enterprises, but I'm not really worried.  Bruce and I discussed the deal days ago and now we are just trying to figure out all the conditions before we make the decision public.  As I walk through the house, I pass my son's bedroom.  The door is open and just as my eyes land on the boy fondly, I stop dead in my tracks.  Little Johnny is crying his eyes out!  Why is he crying?

"Tommy, I'm going to have to call you back," I say hastily, but apologetically.  I hang up before Tommy can protest.  Billionaire CEO, "bow-toting Robin Hood wannabe" as plenty of gossip columns call me, but father and husband take the cake.  I shove the phone in the inside pocket of my blazer and rush into my son's room.  I nearly trip over his Legos.  This five-year-old kid needs to clean up his room.  When I reach Johnny's queen-sized bed, I become a little more gentle with my approach.  I sit down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders.

"Hey, what's the matter, kiddo?" I ask lovingly.  

Johnny lifts his face from his hands and I gape at him.  A piece of paper scribbled all over with purple crayon and two little slits messily cut out for the eyes is taped to his face.  Not only that, but he's wearing a purple zip-up hoodie his mother must have gotten for him and then I see the toy bow and quiver on the floor across from his bed.

"What happened, buddy?" I ask.

"Go away, Daddy," Johnny squeaked, shrugging my arm off of his shoulders.  I am not letting off that easily.  Gently, but firmly I lift him and settle him onto my lap.  

"Seriously, Jonathan, what's wrong?" I ask a third time.  Johnny doesn't move or say a word, but gives me that stubborn look that is so like his mother's.   _Why did you do this to me, Chloe?_ I scream to myself.  I'll try bribery.  "I'll give you a big bowl of ice cream if you tell me what's wrong," I offer with a grin.  

Johnny gives me a precociously quizzical look and I have to remember that the kid is five and his mother is Chloe Sullivan.  Finally, the kid breaks down into tears again and I rock him gently.

"I couldn't save her, Daddy," he sobbed into my blazer.  This blazer is going to have go to the dry cleaners sooner than later.  

Probably, a game that the kid was playing, but I'll indulge him.  "You couldn't save who?"

"MOMMY!" screams Johnny so unexpectedly that I jump.  "I couldn't save Mommy!"

Um, okay?  "What do you mean you couldn't save Mommy?" I ask evenly as I carefully remove the makeshift mask from his face.  This boy knows when I am just playing along with his little games, so I try very hard to sound genuine.

"I tried to save her from the evil laptop monster!"

 _Evil laptop monster?_ I mouth to myself.  Surely he can't be talking about Brainiac.  According to Clark, that troublesome droid wasn't supposed to reappear until the thirty-first century.  "What evil laptop monster?" I ask, trying to sound worried.

"The one that is keeping Mommy clickity-clackiting in her office," replies Johnny.  "She hasn't shown up for dinner, she doesn't tuck me in, I showed her an owie I got on my arm when I tripped in the garden and she didn't even kiss it!  So, I tried to save her.  But the monster's hold on her is too strong!"  I tighten my arms around my son and shush him as he continues to babble.  Despite his vivid, albeit adorably childlike imagination, Johnny is not far off come to think of it. 

He's not talking about Brainiac; in his own childlike fashion, he's noticing that his mother has lately become a workaholic!  Chloe has been trading real meals for nitpicks and coffee as she has barely even come to bed with me.  Several times, I have found her in the morning passed out at her computer chair.  The first few times I laughed at the creases the buttons on her keyboard made on her face, but after awhile I started to worry.  Between managing the Isis Foundation which has steadily been growing into a nationwide organization, to keeping up with articles that she accepts (usually coming from the Star City Register, the Daily Planet, and the Gotham Gazette) to her role as Watchtower, Chloe has been spreading herself way too thin and has barely taken time for herself.  If she does show up at the dinner table, she usually leaves early.  And if she does come to bed, it's after I have fallen asleep and she tends to get out of bed before I wake up.  

Is it too much for a husband to want to have quality bedtime with his one-of-a-kind wife?  Is it too much for a kid to ask his mother to play with him and make his boo-boos feel better?  Hell, is it even too much for an alien to want to spend a day with his best friend?  Is it too much for a woman to want to have a girl's night out with her cousin?  Chloe's been so immersed in her work, she's been neglecting everyone.

"How did you try to save Mommy?" I ask.  

Johnny gapes up at me, giving me an indignant look.  "I didn't try to save Mommy; the Purple Arrow tried to save Mommy!"

I have to fight from laughing or crossing my eyes.  It does explain the purple hoodie and lousy mask though.  "Okay, how did _the Purple Arrow_ try to save Mommy?" I correct myself.

"I shot her coffee mug," replies Johnny with a big grin.  That was really, _really_ bad move, young man.  "And then while she was trying to clean up the mess, I tried to take her laptop away."  Okay, _two_ really, really bad moves.  "But the evil laptop monster had her 'hippotized' and she took the laptop back from me."  Did he mean _hypnotized_?  Then Johnny's face was sullen again.  "And then she sent me to my room.  I failed, Daddy.  I should have saved her, but I couldn't."  He looks at me seriously.  "I'm sorry, Daddy.  I'm not a hero." 

Oh, my God.  I stare at my son for several minutes.  This boy is letting himself be crushed by a bout of child's play in an effort to get his mother to loosen up.  Should I tell him that I tried something similar a few days ago?  Maybe not, because what I did was not very child-friendly.  I stole his mother's laptop too, but I...um I also might have stolen her clothes as well.  I placed her laptop in a room on the opposite side of the house and I told her that I would give her her clothes back, but after she made love to me.  We got so far as the bed, but I then realized, between our kisses, she had cuffed my wrists to the bedframe.  She grabbed clothes, blew me a kiss, and left me in the bedroom with only my jeans on.  That didn't work out as well as I hoped.

Finally I smile and hold Johnny close to me.  "Don't be sorry, Johnny.  You are a hero."  Johnny aspired to be hero just like Superman and the Green Arrow, but he didn't know who they were.  The boy's too young to know exactly who his parents are.  "You can save Mommy, you just need to try again."

Johnny grumbles.

"I'll help you," I offer.

Johnny doesn't do anything.  

"Clark's in town; I can see if he's willing to help," technically, Clark is still in Gotham, but no point in telling Johnny that.  Plus, Clark can always get Chloe to loosen up.  Sometimes, I get a little jealous of that, but he is her best friend.  Chloe's my wife, and, at Clark's advice, we had a proper wedding ceremony a year after Johnny was born where Clark escorted her down the aisle for the second time in her life and doubled as her man of honor.  Lois, in turn was my best woman.  Sometimes it takes a little bit of help on a BFF level to get Chloe to loosen up and have fun.  I can think of a few times it took Chloe to get the Boy Scout to take a breath.  At mentioning his godfather, Johnny's green eyes brighten.

"You'd do that?" he asks.

"Yep," I reply with a wink.  "In fact, I'll call him right now."  I pull out my phone and scroll through my contacts until I find Clark's number.  Johnny slides off my lap and sits beside me as he eagerly awaits Clark's answer.

"Hello?" answers Clark's voice.  I hear wind through the phone.  Either he's flying or he is floating really high in the air.  

"Hiya, Clark," I greet cheerfully.

"Ollie?" I can hear the smile in Clark's voice.  "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

I think about it.  I exchange a glance with Johnny and in a business-like voice, I answer, "We have a code BFF."  It's the name Johnny came up with whenever Chloe or Clark, or even Lois needed a little intervention...specifically from a best friend.  Clark knows what I am talking about.  He also knows to make his entrance more believable.

"Got it, I will be over in about ten minutes," says Clark and he disconnects.  

I meet Johnny's hopeful eyes.  "Clark should be here in about ten minutes," I assure him while also giving him a general location that I know is at least ten minutes from here.  "In the meantime, let's do something about that mask."  Johnny smiles bigger.  For a five-year-old, he's really good about brushing and flossing.  I told him that if his teeth weren't white by the time they start falling out, the Tooth Fairy wouldn't leave any cash under his pillow.

I got up and told him to wait while I get something from my desk in the study. 

"Wait, Daddy, won't Mommy know if Clark comes?" asks Johnny worriedly.

I think about that for a minute.  "If Mommy is as absorbed by the evil laptop monster as we think she is, then she probably won't even hear the doorbell."  She probably would hear it, but I doubt she would take more than a second to wonder who's visiting.  I hold up my finger and Johnny waits while I head to the study.  When I get to the study, I search through my desk.  This was something I had made a long time ago and I wanted to wait until Johnny's birthday to give it to him, but he needs to cheer up.  I find the little box and smile.  Now that I have what I am looking for, I head back to Johnny's room.  When I walk through the doorway, I nearly jump.

"Clark," I greet.  The alien must have come in while I was rummaging through my stuff.  

"Hey, Ollie," Clark greets back as he pushes his useless glasses further up his nose.  Johnny, of course, is all over Clark and he in turn scoops him off the ground and holds him at his hip.  I feel a little pang of jealousy there.  I can work out every day, and still my son is getting a little too heavy for me to hold him like that for long periods of time.

"So what's the emergency?" asks Clark. 

"It's Chloe," I reply simply, but solemnly.  By "Code BFF", Clark knows that I don't mean she's ill or in critical condition.  

"Mommy's been taken over by the evil laptop monster," explains Johnny.  I stifle a giggle.  

Clark mouths  _Brainiac?_ to which I just shake my head.  "Just humor the poor kid," mutter too low for Johnny to hear.

Clark sets down Johnny and Johnny and I fill in on what's going on with my wife.  When we finish, Clark scratches his chin thoughtfully.  Eventually a smile spread across his lips.  

"I think I might have an idea on what can get Chloe to loosen up."

"We're all ears," I invite him to continue as I stand up from the dresser I was leaning against.

Clark launches into a story of how they were in high school and Chloe faced similar situations while they both worked at the Torch.  For the most part, it's very difficult to tear Chloe away from the computer or even a story altogether.  One time Chloe was balancing a couple of reports as well as a story she was working on for the Torch and she was basically working day and night with virtually no sleep.  In desperation, one day Clark invited Chloe over to the Kent Farm to help him study, but that was just a rouse.  She arrived at the Kent Farm when she said she would and she was in for a big surprise.  Johnny and I laugh as Clark reveals what he did to her.

"Not saying that wasn't funny, but are you sure that's a good idea right now?" I ask him.  

Clark smiles deviously.  "Positive.  Besides, lately Chloe hasn't been returning my calls with anything more than five words, so I figured something was wrong.  That's why I brought these."  That's when I see the grocery sack and see what Clark had inside.  I drum my fingers on my arm.  

"I don't know if this'll work, but I do enjoy an opportunity to get Chloe a bit wet."  It is an honestly neutral statement, but I smile wryly as Clark grimaces.  Johnny's got the right idea, but then again I would be worried if he was aware of the connotations hidden in what I said.

"I'll go fill these up," Clark offers.  

When he leaves the room, that's when I remember the gift I have to offer Johnny.

"What's in that box, Daddy?" he asks excitedly.  

 "Open it and find out," I reply simply.

Johnny takes the box eagerly and tears off the little ribbon wrapped around it.  He opens the box and his eyes widen with delight as he lifts what's inside.  It's a little purple mask to fit over his eyes.  It'll obviously become too small for him eventually, but as I help him put it on, I almost cry with joy at how happy he is wearing it.  When I finish, Johnny whips around and hugs me fiercely.  I hug him back.  Soon, though he breaks away from me and grabs his toy boy and quiver.  Given how good that boy already is with toy arrows, I am actually a little afraid of how good he'll be when he graduates to real arrows.

Johnny throws his hood up and says, "Now let's go save Mommy."  He bolts out of the room.  The kid doesn't have to ask me twice.  

Ten minutes later, we have couple of buckets full of "bombs" as Johnny decided to call them and now we were waiting on Chloe.  I can almost feel her growing rage as I'm sure she's figured out her laptop is missing.  Clark whizzed in and stole while she wasn't looking and he said he left a little note telling her to go out back.  Now I'm just trying to keep Johnny quiet so that he doesn't give us away.  

We made a perfect mousetrap, or Chloe-trap.  We put her laptop on a lounge table a safe distance away from the door to the patio.  Soon we hear footsteps.  "Boys if this is way to try and distract me from getting things done, then you are both very wrong," comes Chloe's agitated yet perpetually sexy voice.  She's stepping out now and is closing the glass door behind her.

"Now!" I shout.  If that alone was enough to startle Chloe, what Johnny, Clark and I were about to do would be even greater.  Just as her eyes land on us, she squeals.  Johnny threw a water balloon at her.  It landed square in her chest.  Chloe stood frozen for a moment, looking at Johnny with surprise, annoyance, and anger all over her face.

"We're here to save you, Mommy," he explains happily and he throws another water balloon at his mother.

"Jonathan Sullivan Qu--" that reprimand was cut off by a balloon from me, then by Clark, then by Johnny and soon the three of us are bombing Chloe with water balloons as she tries to grab a balloon herself.  When she manages to grab one and throw it, it hit Johnny in the face.  Oops.  Chloe covers her mouth in shock as she, Clark and I scramble over to Johnny. 

"Oh, my God, Johnny I'm so sorry, are you okay?" Chloe asks frantically.  

Johnny looks up at her weakly.  Then he grabs another water balloon and smashes it on top of his mother's head.  "I'm fine, Mommy," he replies finally with a goofy grin.  "I saved your life!" 

Chloe, despite her agitation, cocks her head.  "From what?"

"I saved you from the evil laptop monster!" explains Johnny happily as if he already won.  I hope he won.  "You wouldn't stop working and working, so I figured your laptop had you trapped or something.  I had to save you."

Chloe's features soften.  "Sweetie, I'm not trapped or anything, I'm just really busy."

"That's exactly what you said to me when we were sixteen," says Clark.  "Take a break, Chloe."

Chloe looks up at her best friend.  "Clark, you may be my best friend and Johnny's uncle, but you have no authority over me in this house," she explains sharply.

"When he knows what he's talking about, he does," I argue.  Chloe shoots me an angry look that screams  _Et tu, Brute!_  "Chloe, if you don't take a break, you're gonna have a burnout."

"I'll take my chances," Chloe says stubbornly, to which Clark drops another balloon on her head.  This time, she just seethes.  

"Mommy, I don't wanna lose you," says Johnny quietly as he buries himself in his mother's arms.  

Now Chloe seems to melt a little.  She strokes Johnny's hair a little.  "Oh, honey, you're not going to lose me."

"But you'll die if you don't have fun with me, Dad, and even Clark and Lois!"  Chloe looks up at me and Clark in turn.  We each give her solemn, but childlike nods.  Lois is very good to Johnny, but he doesn't see her as often as he does Clark.  Our safest explanation is that Perry has Clark working for the Star City Register once in a while.  There is actually some truth to that.

"Oh, boys," Chloe motions for Clark and I to join the hug.  We should not have joined the hug.  Before the two of us can react, Chloe takes her arms off of us and they return with balloons.  I really should have taken off this blazer for this.  We give Chloe an agitated look, to which she smiles.  There's the Chloe I love.  There's Clark's best friend.  "I think I can play once in awhile."

The balloon war was on.  By the time we ran out of balloons, the four of us were soaked!  After changing into dry clothes (Clark comes and goes so often that we gave him his own room and so he has a few of his clothes here) we had a cookout and watched a movie.  Johnny was in the room, so us adults had to pick something a bit friendlier than our usual choice of film.

And that night I slept with Chloe in my arms.  I slept better and more contentedly than I had in weeks.  

"Thank you, Johnny," I whisper into the darkness.


End file.
